On Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken submitted a long-awaited report to Congress that says Israel has likely used US weapons in ways that are “inconsistent” with international law but claims there’s no way to prove it. The findings won’t impact the flow of US military aid.
The report, which was issued a few days late, fulfills a new national security memorandum that requires assurances from countries receiving US military aid that the weapons won’t be used to violate US or international law. The US is supposed to cut off aid if those assurances are deemed not credible and if the country is blocking shipments of humanitarian aid.
Despite the mountain of evidence that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza and the continued restrictions on aid, the State Department report deems the Israeli assurances “credible and reliable so as to allow the provision of defense articles … to continue.” The report also claims it received credible assurances from Ukraine, Nigeria, Colombia, Iraq, Kenya, and Somalia.
Regarding the restrictions on aid, the report says Israel “did not fully cooperate” in the first months of its onslaught in Gaza but claims there’s been a “substantial increase” in its efforts on humanitarian aid more recently. But just a few days before the report was issued, Israel captured the Rafah border crossing, the most vital channel for aid deliveries, and it remains closed.
The report says that it’s “reasonable to assess” that US-provided weapons “have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its [international humanitarian law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.” But it claims the US doesn’t have “complete information” on the issue.
Blinken reaffirmed the report in an interview on Sunday. “When it comes to the use of weapons, concerns about incidents, where given the totality of the damage has been done to children, women, men, it was reasonable to assess that, in certain instances, Israel acted in ways that are not consistent with international humanitarian law,” he said.
Human rights organizations have compiled evidence about specific Israeli strikes that have hit residential buildings that could not be considered military targets and slaughtered a large number of civilians. Back in November, +972 Magazine published a report that revealed Israel was intentionally targeting residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure, which it refers to as “power targets.”
The US has been flying surveillance drones over Gaza and likely has far more evidence of Israeli war crimes than what’s publicly available, but Blinken claimed Hamas’s style of fighting “makes it very difficult to determine, particularly in the midst of war, exactly what happened, and to draw any final conclusions from any one incident.”
Blinken repeated a warning from President Biden that the US would stop arming Israel with heavy bombs if it carried out a large-scale operation in Rafah. But Israel’s attack on Rafah continues to escalate, and so far, there’s been no US action. The Israeli military has also said that it has enough munitions for its planned operations in the city.
Well – their assurances are all credible and reliable. In spite of a “mountain of evidence.” Nobody could make up satire like this.
Israeli ” assurances are…credible and reliable. [Despite] a ‘mountain of evidence.'”
Yea, but I’d rephrase that as follows:
In spite of a ‘mountain of evidence,’ it cannot be definitively proven that Israeli assurances are not credible and reliable.
Question: And why – versus what a ‘mountain of evidence’ indicates – should definitive proof be the standard of whether Israel has pursued the siege in compliance with US and international law?
Answer: Because definitive proof is the benchmark we set.
Q: But why that benchmark? – of definitive proof?
A: Because.
Q: Vs the US’s unexamined, immediate, declared judgment that Russia had violated international law after the ‘Bucha massacre’?
A: Yes.
Q: And concretely? What would constitute definitive proof?
A: As with the term, we will tell you what constitutes definitive proof when and as we see fit. Now shut up, Jw-hating Hamas lover.
Liars. In you can’t prove it.
Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.
The US supplied Israel with white phosphorus which has recently been used on Palestinians in Rafah but also to set fire to Lebanon’s forests.
Makes one wonder if that was used on Okt 7 against occupants in vehicles which were quickly buried with a bulldozer as if trying to hide the evidence from forensic investigation.
If the political establishment feels threatened enough by students,unions and protestors I can see white phosphorus being used like tear gas and rubber bullets.
The students of Kent State (1970) and the miners of Blair Mountain (1921) would like to have a word about that, I should think.
Not Likely… Rather Definitely…!
Where is the Justice…?!
Here’s another issue, the MIC have contracts with ISDS provisions to supply US government, that means that they can sue for damages when there’s a drop in their own and imagined financial forecast.
Is anyone surprised? Who’s going to enforce the law against these clowns? They ARE the law. Same as it ever was.
Both of these corrupt sick countries are going down. The problem is they are going to take a lot of good people with them.
The states of North America will survive, probably in a much different fashion once the hegemony collapses. Most of us will have to learn to farm again.
When in hell has breaking laws bothered the US or the Government of Israel.Lie down with dogs one catches fleas.
That’s why they’ve never been ratified.
Who thinks that far ahead?
Just keep wringing one’s hands pretending that they do not know what the right thing is to be done. Face it, Israel owns the present (all?) administration
“The report also claims it received credible assurances from Ukraine, Nigeria, Colombia, Iraq, Kenya, and Somalia.” wut
LOL
‘credible assurances from Ukraine’ … a contradiction in terms, if ever there was one.
The US is fast becoming a laughing stock, to the region and indeed the world. People are suffering and are dead and dying in massive numbers, dueto our failed foreign policy.
The entire uniparty of the United States of Amnesia is a tragedy and a danger to the world. Both parties are complicit in the nightmare in Gaza, as well as getting NATO to ratchet up things to the point that Russia is doing nuclear war drills. Utterly, utterly stupid people.
Cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s fate?… ;-%
If the Netanyahu Israeli government is breaking international law, isn’t it the decent thing for the Biden administration to stop, or at the very least, to suspend the flow of US armements to that country?
No. Suspending the arm shipment will just encourage Hamas to continue to hold the hostages. The longer they hold the hostages the more people will die in Gaza.
Here’s a novel concept. Hire someone to find out you idiot.
“ but claims there’s no way to prove it.”
A lie after a lie.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a key proponent of NSM-20, expressed disappointment in the product delivered Friday.
“The one important general finding that was made in this report was the conclusion that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the Netanyahu government has violated international law in its conduct in Gaza,” Van Hollen said in a phone briefing with reporters. “But the administration ducked all the hard questions about making the actual determination,” he said.
I know nothing about this guy but just that statement alone makes me wish the democrats would replace Biden with him as their candidate.
Plus, he said this about the wicked witch:
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., accused former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of being “quite dismissive of students’ concerns,” when she ripped anti-Israel student protesters as being ignorant about Middle Eastern affairs.
I’d be satisfied if the Democrats substituted Happy the Clown.
Or even Krusty the Clown.
Thats like me saying ‘Hey, I’m pretty sure i broke some rules by killing a person, but that doesnt mean ill stop!!!’
“Joe Biden has also criticized the campus protests, warning that “dissent must never lead to disorder” and that “violent protest is not protected”.
“Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations – none of this is a peaceful protest,” the US president said on 2 May. “Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not a peaceful protest.”
But supplying bombs with thousands of pounds of high-explosive to the IDF which has been using them to slaughter innocents is protected, according to you and your war party.
That about right, Mr. President?
He knows full well (well, maybe) the protests have, by and large, been peaceful. The “violence” appears to be a matter of the police actions against the protesters, and, in some cases, against professors at those institutions who were protecting their student’s right to exercise their first amendment rights.
Israel Likely Breaking Law
And definitely breaking their Commandments.
LOL!
Daniel McAdams
@DanielLMcAdams
·
4h
Not a single US government official will give a crap about them. Not a finger will be lifted, not a cry will be heard. After all they were helping Palestinian civilians, who they believe to be subhuman.
Quote
Ryan Grim
@ryangrim
·
5h
Upward of 20 American doctors are trapped at the European Hospital in Gaza, facing extreme dehydration, at least one is on an IV drip. This is a developing situation…
Story with @Hind_Gaza https://theintercept.com/2024/05/13/rafah-doctors-european-hospital-un-employee-killed/
Meanwhile, Webster’s Dictionary is updating its entry on Gaza to include ‘see Lidice Massacre (but a lot worse)’.